Perfect
by loveackshuly
Summary: Another Hermione and Theodore fic set when they are older and married. This is actually two fics that I ended up combining because I thought it was better writing to make the story longer and have past reflections as opposed to two different stories :


_Today. Today I'll tell him._

If Hermione hadn't been feeling sick as she was already, that thought alone was enough to do it. She had seen more of the U-shaped toilet bowl at an up close and personal level than she ever wanted to and no measure the brunette mother of three seemed to take was helping her. Leaning her head against the marble sink in the master bath, she drew a hand to her forehead, exhausted at the toll her body was taking on her. The first three hadn't been nearly this bad. In fact with Billy, she feared for the worst when she was hardly ever poorly in the mornings, taking it as a sign that something was amiss when the telltale pregnancy symptom was void from her routine. The same had happened with Sophia, but with the understanding that just because there was a lack of morning sickness, did not mean her baby wouldn't turn out to be perfectly healthy and the rest of her pregnancy run smooth. Amelia was when the first hinting of illness began and it wreaked havoc on the young mother. She could recall mornings when she felt as if moving was an impossibility and they were better spent in bed as opposed to going through the daily routine as pre usual with the added weight (literally) of a third child.

But this was unlike anything she had experienced before and it was beginning to worry her – not so much because of the fact that she felt so ill, but because it was a constant reminder that she was keeping a secret that she wasn't sure how to continue to contain. Teddy was well aware that something was amiss with her. Nearly everyone was by this point. She hadn't felt well physically in a few weeks, and since the very start of it, she knew the real reason why her 'stomach bug' never seemed to fade in its entirety. Three times was indeed a charm and that charming experience made it impossible for Hermione not to grasp the idea she was pregnant. It wasn't so much as a physical feeling – although the better half of the month had been telltale signs of their own in that respect. But something inside of her, that intuition so to speak that confirm the fact of the matter far before a mediwitch made a diagnosis.

"Oy! I thought we talked about using all the hot water!" A cheerful, somewhat sleepy tone rang out from the other side of the bathroom door. Hermione lost track of how long she'd been resting the side of her head against the cool relief of the sink, reminded when she heard Teddy's jest. Eyes opened to find the suddenly muggy room filled with steam wafting from a neglected running showerhead. It was trick she'd adopted mainly in the past week or so when she felt as if she were going to be sick and didn't want to worry Teddy. But it came with a price and that tag read 'guilt'. Hermione hated feeling as if she were lying to him. She wasn't _lying_ per se, but she wasn't telling him the truth, either. She'd known for certain for days now and she had yet to tell her husband that there was more to her tummy aches than simply a touch of illness.

"I'll be right there, love." With some effort, she pulled herself from the cold tile floor and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand before turning off the shower. She tried not to stare too long at her reflection, knowing that whoever was looking back was not only a secret-keeper, but an awful-looking one at the moment. She made a quick job of cleaning up, flushing away the memories of a difficult morning and washing her hands and mouth out afterwards. Shaking hands were forced to steady as Hermione drew her hair between her fingers and pulled the long softly curled locks up, securing them with a clasp at the back of her head. Sighing, she dabbed some cream beneath her eyes to hide the dark circles that had formed beneath them. When she opened the door, a smile touched her lips to mask any sort of discomfort that she was most certainly still in. "Sorry," she said sheepishly, kissing her husband in greeting.

"I'll forgive you this time," Teddy said with a grin and a playful swat to her bottom when he passed her and disappeared into the bathroom. By the time he was finished, Hermione had the rest of the children awake and was in the midst of making the four of them breakfast (she was just munching on some dry toast in the process).

"You look pretty," he said, brushing his lips against her cheek when she set his plate in front of him. Amelia hopped out of her seat and crawled into his lap as soon as he'd sat down.

"Me too, Daddy? Me too?" Hermione grinned when she caught Billy roll his eyes into his cereal at the way his baby sister was begging for their father's attention.

"Gorgeous, baby," Teddy said, ruffling a soft head of blonde curls. "Now eat up! You have a big day with Mummy practicing for your nursery show." Sending her back to her seat with a kiss to her nose, Teddy chuckled to himself. Hermione was well aware of the little scene. They happened every day. He was so wonderful with the children, the best father anyone could have wanted for their little ones. Not to mention husband. Hermione couldn't complain and she never did. So it all went back to the question of why she hadn't told him the big news yet.

By the time he'd left for work that morning, her tongue was still tied. Her thoughts would be on the fact all day as well, fitting into the remorse she felt for not confessing sooner. Throughout the rest of the morning, dipping into the afternoon, Hermione reminisced about their history, the way their whole story unfolded. So unexpected at first, but so perfect in the end: Hermione Granger and Theodore Nott, best friend of Harry Potter and best friend of Draco Malfoy, a muggleborn and a pureblood, a Gryffindor and a Slytherin.

"Was it okay?"

*

_'Was it okay?'_ Hermione was a nineteen year old girl again with a shy, silly smile and a boy in her arms who had one to match. His voice was so characteristically _Teddy_ at that moment and if she hadn't been so in love with him before, her feet would have been swept out from beneath her at the sound of the syllables tickling her ear in puffs of warm air. The nerves had ceased, though it had taken ages for them to do so it seemed. Ever since he made a nervous request a few months before, expressing a wish to experience what it was like to create love between two bodies to mirror what was already felt between two hearts, Hermione had those nerves. It was a sort of quiet anxiety that was present every time he fell asleep next to her or brushed his lips to hers, never knowing when such intimacy would occur.

That night, she had known. There was no mistaking it when he looked at her from across the room in the small house at Godric's Hollow. Even with the idea that soon enough, things would progress to the next level with the pair, especially after the two of them shyly confessed to one another that they wanted it to, it wasn't planned when it would happen. Like so many things leading up to that point in their relationship, it just happened, actions ruled by the heart and gently nudged along with the mind and from that shared eye contact, brown looking up from the pages of a book and meeting the bluest of blues in the doorway, it was clear. The anxiety had since faded, but she could feel him still trembling beside her. Of course, the wide-eyed brunette had done a fair share of it herself from the first time he'd kissed her that evening until he settled down beside her when they were through, the echo of her name leaving his lips hardly lingering in the quiet room, broken with only the sounds of exchanged desperate 'I love you's before he questioned her. She was still for a moment, calmed and at ease with the realization that this was indeed a reality.

But it seemed far from it. There was still a war going on, raging more than ever with the threat of impending defeat echoing loudly throughout the Wizarding World for the good fight. It seemed so many were at a stage when doubt overruled reason, or perhaps it was reason itself that was the driving force for the drowning of hope in the hearts of dozens of once faithful believers. She remembered clearly when Neville grabbed her arm by the crook of her elbow and pulled her aside to speak in hushed tones.

_"We can't win this, can we Hermione?"_

_"I don't know, Nev."_ It was spoken honestly. She too had doubts, far many more since the death of her parents. It was still a wound that was freshly emblazoned on her heart despite the fact that months had passed since the day Voldemort celebrated a small victory for the Dark Side, but seemingly the end of the world for a petite bookworm with still too-curly hair. The painful sting of the reality of the situation stayed with her long after, but there was plenty to dull the ache. And her favorite distraction was simply Teddy.

They were in their own little world at the moment, one that existed between the security of sheets and secrets that were shared without ever speaking a world. There was a safety with Theodore that Hermione had never been able to express to the extent that she wanted to, but it was tangible in the way he held her after the first time they made love. There were no thoughts of war, no doubts that others may have had (including themselves at one point) seeping in to ruin their moment. Just the two of them so wrapped up in one another that anything else was impossible to see. Her smile was pressed against what bit of skin she could reach, kissing his shoulder in reassurance while her fingertips ran gingerly along his back to soothe.  
_'Perfect.'_

*

"Mum_my_!"

Hermione was tugged back into reality, literally, by a small fist around the hem of her jumper. Shaking her head out of a pleasant memorable daydream, she nodded. "Yes baby, it was a wonderful song. You'll do lovely in your play." The rest of the day carried out in a similar nature, getting lost in thought while going about her tasks and taking care of the children, waiting anxiously to see her sweetheart come home to them when his day was through.

Later that night, there was no pre-confessing pep talk. There was no deep breaths taken to soothe her nerves because whereas she had so many before, the day full of musing over their lives together had erased her fears and nerves and when she quietly cuddled up beside him in bed that evening, there was a grin on her face. Gently reaching over to remove the book he was reading from his hands, Hermione met his eyes, much in the same way their gazes locked that night so many years ago in Godric's Hollow. It was all going to be all right. She was sure of it when she studied the silent but reassuring confusion that flickered amid the speckles of dark blue in his eyes, waiting for her to speak.

"I have something to tell you, sweetheart."


End file.
